A monument to reconciliation

1:45 PM,
Apr. 4, 2013

Written by

Kathleen Parker

CAMDEN, S.C. -- It isn't often that one gets to hear both the strains of "Dixie" and an African drum concert in the same public square. Nor, usually, are statue unveilings the riveting stuff of storytelling.

That is, unless one happens to be in the oldest inland city, population 7,000, of one of the oddest little states in a nation of oddness.

The unlikely combo of a brass band invoking the rebel anthem and a couple of dreadlocked musicians pounding drums provided the soundtrack for an Easter weekend unveiling of life-sized, bronze statues celebrating two Camden-born national figures -- ...